Cherenkov luminescence imaging of shallow sources in semitransparent media

Abstract

We experimentally investigated the Cherenkov luminescence imaging (CLI) of the isotopes with different beta particles energies (Cu64, F18, Au198, P32, and Br76) in semitransparent biological equivalent media. The main focus of this work is to characterize the CLI when the sources are at the depth comparable with the range of beta particles. The experimental results were compared with Monte Carlo (MC) simulation results to fine tune the simulation parameters to better model the phantom materials. This approach can be applied to estimate the CLI performance for different phantom materials and isotopes. This work also demonstrates some unique properties of high energy beta particles that can be beneficial for CLI, including the possibility to utilize the betas escaped from the object for imaging purposes.